BATON ROUGE - Five players scored in double figures for No. 22 LSU in an 85-76 win over Memphis Tuesday night at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center. And not one of those was sophomore point guard Tremont Waters, who led LSU in scoring last season with 15.9 a game.

This is a good thing. In a perfect basketball world, point guards distribute the ball first, score second. Waters had eight assists with eight points, three steals and a blocked shot as the Tigers led by nine at the half, 48-39, by 10 six times in the second half and by 11 twice in the final minutes.

"I thought Tremont did a nice job of bringing us home in those last six minutes," LSU coach Will Wade said. "He made a lot of the plays down the stretch for us. It was good to have balanced scoring. Good team win."

Junior guard Skylar Mays led the Tigers (3-0) with 19 points, and senior transfer forward Kavell Bigby-Williams, formerly of Oregon, scored 14 points off the bench with four rebounds, a blocked shot, an assist and a steal. Freshman guard Ja'vonte Smart scored 13 with three steals and three assists.

Freshman center Naz Reid added 11 points, including a no-look, over-the-head layup for a 74-64 lead off a Waters assist with 4:35 left, and five rebounds.

The star-studded freshmen class also featured forward Emmitt Williams leading both teams with 10 rebounds and scoring 11 points.

"It felt awesome to be in my freshman year in college, and we've won three games in a row," Smart said. "I am just happy to be here right now."

Memphis of first-year coach Penny Hardaway, the former Memphis and NBA star, outscored LSU, 13-2, to open the second half, but LSU quickly established control. Mays hit a 3-pointer for a 57-54 lead with 12:42 left, followed by Reid hitting a 3-pointer with 11:47 to play for a 60-54 lead.

Just over two minutes later, and the Tigers were up by nine at 66-57 after a pair of free throws by senior Daryl Edwards. A fast break layup by Waters put the Tigers up by 68-58 with 8:10 to go, and Memphis (1-1) never threatened again.

The Tigers outscored Memphis 12-3 over the final 3:36 of the first half to take its largest lead of the game at 48-39 into halftime. Mays scored 10 of those 12 points.

"Proud of my guys tonight," Hardaway said. "They came into a very hostile environment against a really good team, a top 25 team, in the SEC. They hit us first. We took the punch and hit back. We couldn't finish it."

LSU freshman forward Darius Days, who had seven in the first half and finished with nine, started the run with a rebound and putback for a 38-36 LSU lead at the three-minute mark. Mays, who had 14 in the first half, scored on a fast break layup from a feed by Williams for a 40-37 lead. Then Mays popped a 3-pointer with 1:27 to go for a 43-37 advantage.

Mays hit another 3-pointer with 25 seconds to go to give LSU a 46-39 lead. He finished 3-of-5 from 3-point range to lead LSU. Williams hit two free throws with 10 seconds left for the nine-point bulge to end the half.

LSU was 1 of 8 from 3-point range in the first half before Mays hit his pair. The Tigers out-rebounded Memphis, 23-16, in the first half and shot 57.1 percent from the field to 36 percent. LSU out-rebounded Memphis 37-32 for the game and shot 54 percent to 40 percent.

"I thought it was a great finish to the first half," Wade said. "Good win. There are obviously some areas we need to improve, but I thought that changing defenses helped a lot."

The Tigers next play on Friday against Louisiana Tech (3-0) at 7 p.m. in the Assembly Center.